thoughts on the life and culture of independent schools

02/16/2012

Your Most Challenging Hire

What is/has been your most challenging hire? If you're a Head of School, was it your lieutenant? By that I mean, was it your administrative assistant? That position requires someone with a great deal of tact, an ability to handle volumes of confidential information, the perspicacity to share things with you at the right time -- even to pre-empt certain things by letting you know in the knick of time. Yes, detail-oriented, excellent communcator, and so on. What else?

If you're a division head or department chair, what has been your most challenging hire? Has it been someone whom you could groom (theoretically) to take over your position, should you either move on or something befall you? Was it intentionally hiring someone whose perspective diverges (perhaps greatly) from your own? Was it a moment of discomfort, of joy, or some odd combination of the two?

Please reply in the "comments" section of this post in order to share your most challenging hire. I will publish the comments, so that others can read. I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Comments

Kevin,

Every opportunity to hire is a chance to advance your mission or set it back. I find the most challenging aspect is not finding applicants who have the education, experience, or skill set that I am seeking - it is trying to determine if the applicant is the right fit for our school culture.

If I had to pick my most challenging set of hires, it would be the first group of teachers I had to hire at my last school, which was a start up that I was hired to head. Picking the very first faculty members was very tough because the work done early on would define our culture, since one was not already in place.